Watching for meteors. comets, and asteroids

When does a meteor occur?

When a rock from space(a meteoroid) hits earth’s atmosphere and glows as it heats up, resulting in a brief streak of light..

What happens when a meteoroid enters earth’s atmosphere?

It usually burns up(and that’s a good thing)

What is the meteoroid called if it actually strikes earth?

Meteorite

What are comets made of?

They are snowballs composed mainly of ice and rock

What happens when a comet approaches the sun?

Some of the ice in its nucleus(center) turns into gas

Where does the gas shoot out of?

The sunlit side of the comet

What happens when the solar wind carries the gas forward?

It forms into a long tail

Long Period Comets:

Which take 200 years or more to orbit the sun and originate the Oort Cloud

Short period comets:

Which complete their orbits in fewer than 200 years and most likely originate in the Kuiper Belt

Why is Halley’s Comet(named after Edmond Halley)?

It is a comet that can be seen every 75-76 years, making it a short period comet.

Halley is the only short period comet that is:

Visible to the naked eye and will return within a human lifetime

The Halley Comet’s many appearances over the centuries has had what on human history?

A notable effect

When did Halley’s comet last appear?

In the inner solar system in 1986 and will next appear in mid 2061

Why are asteroids sometimes called minor planets?

Because they are small bodies that orbit the sun

Some have elliptical orbits that pass:

Inside the orbit of Earth or even that of Mercury

Others travel on a:

Circular path among the outer planets

Most Asteroids circle the sun in a region called:

The Asteroid Belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter

The Asteroid Belt contains how many asteroids?

More than 200 larger than 60 miles(100 kilometers) in diameter

Scientists estimate that how many asteroids exist in the belt?

More than 750,000 with diameters larger than 3/5 mile (1 kilometer) exist in the belt

There are millions of smaller asteroids, and astronomers have even found:

Several large asteroids with smaller asteroids orbiting them